The present invention relates to a connector provided with configurable contacts. More particularly, the invention is suitable for use in the field of connectors of the programmable shunt type, said connectors being provided so as to permit certain of their contacts to be activated selectively and/or to permit the contacts disposed in said connector to be selectively connected to each other. In particular, the invention is suitable for use in the field of aviation, particularly in the field of connectors for aircraft engines. A connector according to the invention has the advantage that it can be used under difficult external conditions, particularly at high temperatures of the order of 150xc2x0 C.
Connectors are known in the prior art which are provided with contacts and which are generally mounted on printed circuits. A printed circuit comprises fixed tracks which are generally etched in a substrate of the circuit. In order to connect one track to another as required when the pattern of the printed circuit does not provide for this, it is necessary to provide each track with contact blocks at desired points, and subsequently to make a connection between said contact blocks. For this purpose, a connector is known in the prior art which is provided with contacts such that first ends of said contacts can each be connected, for example, to a contact block of the printed circuit.
Moreover, these contacts each comprise a second free end on a rear face of the connector. In the prior art, in order to connect these two free ends of the same connector to each other and/or to short-circuit them, a conductor element is used which is placed in contact with at least two of said second free ends. In particular, a connector is known from document EP-A-0 576 365 which is provided with contacts such that each contact can be connected to another via a U-shaped bar. These U-shaped bars are generally disposed in a cap which can be mounted on the rear face of the connector. Given that the connector comprises a plurality of contacts, there is a considerable number of possible combinations of contacts with each other. For this purpose, it is necessary to design as many possible forms of U-shaped bars as there are possible combinations between the contacts. Furthermore, the same cap has to be able to receive fittings which are different from said U-shaped bars, whilst ensuring that only the desired connections are made.
Caps which are provided with U-shaped conductor elements which are separated from each other by walls are known from the teaching of document EP-A-0 576 365, said conductor elements being connected to each other at the height of the wall which separates each of said juxtaposed U-shaped conductor elements. If a partition is of low height, a widened leg of the U-shaped conductor element which is adjacent to one side of said partition will be forced against a leg, which is also widened, of another U-shaped conductor element disposed on the other side of said partition. In this document, the proposed configuration of short-circuits is thus defined by the respective heights of the partitions of the cap. The cap is a rigid but non-configurable structure. It is therefore necessary for the caps to be designed with as many possible distributions of partition heights as there are possible combinations of connections between contacts.
This solution gives rise to a problem. Even if it is easily implemented, since a cap can easily be mounted on a connector, it is costly inasmuch as it is necessary to manufacture caps in all possible configurations in order to be able to obtain all the types of connections between contacts which may be desired. Moreover, these connectors are not flexible, because their configuration is a fixed, intrinsic part of them. Therefore, in order to modify the connections between contacts, it is absolutely necessary to remove the cap and to take out the U-shaped conductor elements, to dispose the U-shaped bars in a suitable new cap, and to mount this new cap on the connector. This solution necessitates the use of numerous individual elements, which have to be kept in stock and which may become lost when the configuration of the connector and of the contacts is changed. This results in increased costs when conducting connectors of this type are used.
The object of the present invention is to remedy the aforementioned problem by proposing a connector which is provided with contacts such that two contacts of said connector can be connected together via a printed circuit board, which is disposed orthogonally to an axis of alignment of the contacts, via movable conductors or pistons. Said pistons can be placed in two stable positions. Moreover, the pistons pass through conductor openings of the printed circuit board, and according to the position in which they are placed can be connected or not connected to the contacts which are present in a connector such as this. Thus, if two pistons are in contact with two contacts of the connector, and if in addition these two pistons pass through openings of the printed circuit which are connected to each other, then the two contacts are connected to each other.
The connector according to the invention comprises a housing provided with an insulating body in which contacts are disposed in such a way that the contacts are elongated in the interior of the housing and comprise first ends at the first opening of the housing, and comprise a second end at a second opening of the housing. The second opening in the housing is opposite the first opening. Moreover, the contacts are each of a form which is complementary with an end of a piston to which they can be connected. In a preferred example, this end is in the form of a socket for receiving a pin formed by the end of the piston. Furthermore, the pin of the piston makes contact with conductive feed-throughs of the printed circuit board. The printed circuit board comprises strip conductors which connect certain conductor openings to each other.
Thus, by means of pins of pistons which are connected to sockets of contacts of the connector, and which are also connected to each other via a printed circuit, these contacts of the connector can be connected to each other even if they are juxtaposed and insulated from each other. Moreover, the solution proposed according to the invention has the advantage that the connector does not require any additional component in order to be configured. Simply displacing a piston from a withdrawn position to a sunken position enables a modification to be made to the connection configuration of the contact of the connector which is opposite said piston. This modification can be made manually. Furthermore, this configuration is stable when the connector is used, because it is retained elastically, and because in a preferred embodiment it is protected by an end cap disposed on the rear face of the connector housing.
The present invention relates to a connector comprising a housing, contacts, and an insulating body comprising said contacts such that a first end of said contacts is disposed at an opening of the housing, characterised in that it comprises a printed circuit and sliding contacts, said sliding contacts being in contact with conductive feed-throughs of the circuit, which feed-throughs can be connected to each other by strip conductors, wherein each of said sliding contacts can be selectively placed in contact with a second end of the contacts.